No matter where you are in your biz, there are amazing tools that can save you dozens of hours per week, automate key marketing activities, and save you thousands of dollars on pricey freelancers.

The trick is knowing the right ones to use at the right stage so that you don’t end up with a stack of expensive, unused software that collect digital dust while you wait for your annual account to run its course.

My commitment to you is that I will always go first. I continually explore what’s needed to build an online business. I experiment with what works and what doesn’t and then report back to you what you need (and when you need it) to create a profitable business you absolutely love.

Many of these links are affiliate links, which means I may get a commission if you purchase. However, none of the fees of these resources have been increased to compensate me. In fact, many of the creators of these tools have given me special discounts that I get to extend to you! You’ll see all the special deals below.

Stage One

I’m new to the online marketing game

Stage Two

I’m starting to see some momentum

Stage Three

I’m ready to scale fast

Tools for Stage One

When you are just starting out, your main focus should be on building your platform, creating consistent content for your target market and growing your email list.

The tools below will help you get started in the right direction, even on a tight budget.

Amys fave at any stage LANDING PAGE SOFTWARE

LeadPages

This single tool has saved my entire team literally hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars per year. LeadPages is the perfect resource to help you scale your business, because it allows you to confidently roll out lead-generating campaigns in record time.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is a powerful email service provider that delivers automation capabilities without the steep price. Collect leads, send out email broadcasts, connect with your community and allow your business to flourish with email marketing.

New Kajabi

Kajabi contains all the features you need to sell, market and deliver your content. Because they make it incredibly easy to turn your knowledge and content into products you can sell, I am a huge fan of this powerful tool. Inside my business, we specifically use Kajabi for our course platforms to highlight and showcase all of our paid content.

SamCart

I finally decided to try Sam Cart after dozens of my friends and peers in online marketing had huge success using the checkout page platform. So, I guess I shouldn't have been shocked that my sales increased almost instantly when I made the switch. Not to mention, I saved thousands of dollars in development fees. Still, my favorite thing about Sam Cart is that it seamlessly integrates with all my other tools. This allows me to launch my courses faster, with the confidence that all the pieces of my funnel will play nicely together.

Host Gator

If you’re starting from the very beginning, I recommend creating a website with wordpress.org and hosting it with Hostgator. It’s an effective and affordable way to make sure your site is always up and running.

PopUp Ally

In my opinion, list-building should be a primary focus on your website. This is even more important when you're just beginning to build an audience. PopUp Ally will help you maximize your site's list-building potential -- in a non-spammy way. This tool is a popup plugin that actually improves the user experience on your site. Its smart technology anticipates people’s needs as they browse around your site, making PopUp Ally far more effective than a lot of the other “in-your-face” popup options.

Evernote

You may already be familiar with this wildly popular tool. Evernote is a crowd favorite among entrepreneurs and marketers. It’s great for taking notes and brainstorming -- especially on-the-go. A big bonus for me is that it's almost impossible outgrow Evernote. You can start with the free version as a beginner, and level up later.

DropBox

In my opinion, the key to minimizing stress in business is staying organized. Dropbox is where I store and systematize my files so that everything has a “home.” You can start using this tool for free and upgrade as your library of digital assets grows.

Last Pass

If you’re still committing passwords to memory (or worse -- using the same password for most of your major accounts), it’s time to geta password manager. My personal favorite is LastPass. I love that it allows me to securely share sensitive information (such a social media logins, etc.)

Canva

Canva is the ultimate design tool for non-designers. It’s user-friendly and the free version gives you access to most features. Use Canva to create shareable social media images, cover photos, even video thumbnails. In no time, you'll be on your way to building a memorable online brand.

99Designs

As a beginner, most of us start with a tight budget, and a tight schedule. If you’re spending hours on end designing images and freebies for your business, check out 99Designs to save time and money in the long run. This crowd-sourcing tool is a great way to get professional, affordable design support.

Meet Edgar

Edgar is my favorite social media scheduling tool that reuses your best content to bring in more views. Everything you publish with Edgar is stored in an organized library and arranged into categories, like “Quotes,” “Blog Posts,” or “Podcast Episodes.” From there you can create a schedule that tells Edgar when to publish from each category. That way, he always knows what types of status updates to post at which times, sharing the right variety of content automatically. When Edgar makes his way through all the new content in a category, he’ll simply start recycling older updates. He’ll never run out of things to say, and your posts will be seen by a new audience, bringing more traffic your way! Edgar can share updates through Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages, and groups), and LinkedIn (profiles and company pages).

Tools for Stage Two

At this stage in your business, one of the smartest decisions you can make is to create an online training course. Not only will it set you up as an expert, but also allow you to move away from the one-on-one services, which in insanely hard to scale. If you’re ready to add a bit more firepower to your marketing toolkit and begin creating an online training program to your business, the tools below will support you in making this exciting business shift!

Amys fave at any stage LANDING PAGE SOFTWARE

LeadPages

This single tool has saved my entire team literally hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars per year. LeadPages is the perfect resource to help you scale your business, because it allows you to confidently roll out lead-generating campaigns in record time.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is a powerful email service provider that delivers automation capabilities without the steep price. Collect leads, send out email broadcasts, connect with your community and allow your business to flourish with email marketing.

New Kajabi

Kajabi contains all the features you need to sell, market and deliver your content. Because they make it incredibly easy to turn your knowledge and content into products you can sell, I am a huge fan of this powerful tool. Inside my business, we specifically use Kajabi for our course platforms to highlight and showcase all of our paid content.

SamCart

I finally decided to try Sam Cart after dozens of my friends and peers in online marketing had huge success using the checkout page platform. So, I guess I shouldn't have been shocked that my sales increased almost instantly when I made the switch. Not to mention, I saved thousands of dollars in development fees. Still, my favorite thing about Sam Cart is that it seamlessly integrates with all my other tools. This allows me to launch my courses faster, with the confidence that all the pieces of my funnel will play nicely together.

Asana

Now that you’re starting to manage a lot of moving parts, you’ve got to stay organized. Asana helps my entire team keep track of our work. We use this tool to communicate, share links, stay on top of deadlines and keep everybody in the loop.

Screenflow

ScreenFlow is a powerful, easy-to-use screencasting software. I use it to record the contents of my screen when I create courses and train team members. You can also use ScreenFlow to capture video from your webcam and audio from your computer and external mic.

Camtasia

This high-quality video editor and screen recorder is an all-in-one powerhouse. It’s a user-friendly favorite of course creators. Consider Camtasia if you're thinking about creating online training courses with quite a few on-screen tutorials.

Yeti Mic

I’ve used quite a few mics over the years, and the moderately-priced Yeti Mic is tried and true. When I use mine on webinars, I almost always get compliments about the sound. Audio-pros may opt for something slightly fancier, but I think the Yeti Mic is a great option.

Vimeo

Help Scout

Help Scout is a customer support portal that was designed to make it extremely easy to provide incredible support to your audience. If you have an online training course, you will want to have support tickets available for people. I take pride in the service my team and I provide for customers, so we love that Help Scout allows us to view tickets, assign tickets, see the last activity, and then close tickets when an issue is resolved.

Tools for Stage Three

It’s time to scale what you’ve worked so hard on creating! You need the tools and systems to help you run the ship, sell more with less effort, and leverage your current position to scale and automate faster. At this stage in your business, one of the smartest decisions you can make is to learn how to deliver valuable, insanely profitable webinars to sell your programs and services. Once you learn to do webinars, the sky’s the limit!

Amys fave at any stage LANDING PAGE SOFTWARE

LeadPages

This single tool has saved my entire team literally hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars per year. LeadPages is the perfect resource to help you scale your business, because it allows you to confidently roll out lead-generating campaigns in record time.

New Kajabi

Kajabi contains all the features you need to sell, market and deliver your content. Because they make it incredibly easy to turn your knowledge and content into products you can sell, I am a huge fan of this powerful tool. Inside my business, we specifically use Kajabi for our course platforms to highlight and showcase all of our paid content.

SamCart

I finally decided to try Sam Cart after dozens of my friends and peers in online marketing had huge success using the checkout page platform. So, I guess I shouldn't have been shocked that my sales increased almost instantly when I made the switch. Not to mention, I saved thousands of dollars in development fees. Still, my favorite thing about Sam Cart is that it seamlessly integrates with all my other tools. This allows me to launch my courses faster, with the confidence that all the pieces of my funnel will play nicely together.

Gravy

Imagine having your own 24/7 U.S. based engagement team who contacts your customers within hours of their failed payment, captures updated billing information, and saves the customer you worked so hard to acquire... Well, no need to imagine it anymore. MEET YOUR PERSONAL PAYMENT RECOVERY TEAM. On average, Gravy increased our failed payment recovery from 33% to 80%

Go To Webinar

GoToWebinar is an all-around great platform for live webinars. If you’re hosting webinars with under 1,000 live attendees, this tool is my top pick. With built-in reports, analytics and full-service registration, GoToWebinar handles all the backend stuff so you can focus on delivering your content.

InstaPage

If you’re working with a team and need a more advanced landing page solution, InstaPage is an industry favorite. This tool is designed to be highly collaborative, and it’s the best option to help you optimize your Facebook Ad spend.

Olark

This live chat software allows our team to answer questions talk with sales page visitors using a custom chat box. Since I started using Olark, my sales have definitely increased. I also love that you can turn it on and off at any time. This way, you’re not tied to your computer in fear of missing someone’s question.

ClickFunnels

I am a fan of all-in-one tools that allow you to scale without the stress. ClickFunnels is an funnel automation tool that streamlines your promotions. Pair it with Deadline Funnel, a countdown timer that adds urgency to tell your audience they need to act NOW, and sales will start rolling in while you sleep.

Deadline Funnel

MotionMail

MotionMail allows you to add dynamic countdown timers to your sales emails. Incorporate an element of urgency in your promotions to train your audience to act fast. This tool will help you avoid sitting around and worrying about when sales will start coming in.

Slack

Slack is a communication tool that can literally eliminate the hassle of having to go back and forth via email with your team. It allows you to keep in touch with everyone -- and it even connects to other tools you use, so you won’t have to switch between apps. A word of warning: stay focused in Slack by keeping topics separate, setting up private communication channels and archiving channels that you don’t use.

SnagIt

This tool is a simple-to-use screen capture and screen recording app. Use it to train new team members, to quickly troubleshoot tech issues (show service people problem -- they like this better than when we non-techy folk try to explain it in plain English) or to reference something visual in an email.

Google Drive

Accessible from anywhere with internet, Google Drive is a great collaborative tool for teams to use when you’re working with content, files, or images in tandem. Unlike DropBox, multiple parties can be in a file at a time manipulating data or text without having to download and re-upload the file.